Macaques and defence

January normally brings cheerful photos from the Gibraltar Chess Festival, where visiting chess-players get an impromptu snap with the Barbary macaques which inhabit the island. Alas, the 2021 festival was off, while the Fide Women’s Grand Prix, a 12-player all-play-all which forms part of the Women’s World Championship cycle, was planned for January and then postponed.

Gibraltar vaccinated most of its adults by March, and by mid-May the government announced that there were no active cases among residents or visitors. That was good timing for the Fide Women’s Grand Prix, which had been rescheduled for later in May, and offered a refreshing glimpse of over-the-board chess.

Zhansaya Abdumalik, 21, from Kazakhstan, won the event convincingly. With a magnificent 8.5/11 score, she gained enough rating points to punch through the 2500 barrier, her last hurdle in qualifing for the Grandmaster title. She faced a difficult defensive challenge during the ninth game.

Valentina Gunina — Zhansaya Abdumalik

Fide Women’s Grand Prix, May 2021

Abdumalik is a pawn down and facing dangerous kingside pressure. 46…Rxb2 looks tempting, but that would allow Gunina to crash through with 47 e6! fxe6 48 Nxe6 Bxe6 49 Qxg6+ Kh8 50 Rxe6 with decisive threats. The most powerful move was 46…f4! 47 Qxf4 Qg4 48 Qxg4 hxg4, which jettisons a second pawn to defuse the kingside attack. The b2-pawn can only be defended with 49 Rb1, but after 49…Bb6! White’s position is hopeless. The enmired bishop and knight can only watch as d4 and b2/f2 drop off.

Instead, Abdumalik opted for 46…Bxg5 47 Qxg5 Rc6 (to prevent Qf6) 48 Ra1 Rb6 (to prevent Ra8+), when the Black position hangs by a thread. A few moves later, Gunina had blown her advantage, but her refusal to settle for a draw allowed Abdumalik to take the full point after 133 moves.